1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to the field of wireless communications. More particularly, the present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for updating databases in wireless devices that are designed to operate in wireless communications networks.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Referring to FIG. 1, current wireless devices 100 generally include an internal database 102 that stores information related to local calling areas. A wireless device can be a wireless phone, a computer, a portable computer, a personal data assistant, a pager, a two-way text pager, and other devices. As known in the art, local calling areas are geographic regions where local wireless service providers provide wireless service. Generally, there is more than one wireless service provider in each local calling area.
As shown in FIG. 2, some examples of local calling areas include a Southeastern region 104 near Atlanta, Ga., a Mid-Atlantic region 106 including Metropolitan Washington, D.C., a Northeastern region 108 that includes New York City, and a Southwestern region 110 that includes Arizona. The four regions mentioned above are examples of only some of the regions in the United States—the United States has many other local calling areas.
In addition to local calling areas in the United States, there are local calling areas in other countries throughout the world. Some examples include: a central European region 112 that includes Switzerland, a Far East region that includes South Korea 114, and a South American region 116 that includes Argentina. Again, there are many other local calling areas throughout the world.
Wireless subscription companies provide wireless telephone service to customers and manage customer accounts. Wireless subscription companies track wireless service usage by customers and bill customers for their use of wireless network resources. Some examples of wireless subscription companies include Cingular, AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon Wireless.
In addition to managing customer accounts, wireless subscription companies also negotiate with local wireless service providers. This is because one wireless subscription company generally does not own the necessary infrastructure and equipment in every local calling area to provide local wireless service on its own network. Therefore, wireless subscription companies generally negotiate with local wireless service providers and eventually enter into agreements with those local wireless service providers. These negotiations generally entail negotiating between the various local wireless providers in a particular region to obtain the most favorable rates for their customers. For example, in a hypothetical situation, a wireless subscription company, for example, Cingular, might negotiate with several local wireless service providers in Northeast region 108. This is a region where Cingular may not provide local wireless service and therefore must negotiate an agreement with a local wireless service provider to provide service for its customers in that region of the country.
In that region, there may be one established local wireless service provider with a large customer base. The network of this established provider may be filled to capacity and therefore, the established provider might offer, for example, 95 cents per minute to Cingular for their customers who use the local Northeast network resources of the established local wireless provider. There may be another service provider that offers, for example, 75 cents per minute, and there may be a new service provider that has excess capacity and needs to populate its network. The new service provider may offer, for example, 15 cents per minute. There are many other factors that affect the prices offered by local wireless service providers. They also change their rates frequently and there are new entrants into the various regional markets that also affect price. So, in response to this dynamic and changing market for local wireless service, wireless subscription providers frequently negotiate new agreements with local wireless service providers and frequently re-negotiate existing agreements.
As wireless device 100 travels through various regions, it is important for wireless device 100 to know which one of the many local wireless service providers has an agreement with the wireless subscription company. Without determining which local wireless service provider has agreed to support the subscription company's customers, wireless device 100 will not be able to utilize wireless service in that region.
Database 102 on wireless device 100 includes information related to the identities of the various local wireless service providers throughout the country and throughout the world that have agreed to provide local wireless service to wireless device 100. Database 102 may include information that informs wireless device 100 which local wireless service provider should be used in the various regions.
As the subscription company negotiates new agreements with different local wireless service providers, the subscription company informs its customers by sending out updated information for each of their customer's wireless devices 100. The updated information is intended to be stored in database 102 and contains information related to local wireless service providers that have entered into agreements with the subscription company. Accordingly, as the subscription company negotiates new agreements and changes the local wireless service providers that will serve their customers, the subscription company must constantly send new information to update databases 102 in all wireless devices 100 subscribing to the company.
In order to update all of the databases 102 of all of their customer's wireless devices, prior art systems simply created a list of all wireless devices associated with their customers and sent updated information to those wireless devices sequentially. In other words, the typical prior art system simply goes down a list of wireless devices and attempts to contact the wireless device and deliver the new updated information for database 102.
This system consumes an enormous amount of system resources and is generally inefficient. This is because prior art systems tended to flood the communications network with the updated information for all of the wireless devices at the same time. Consider a typical situation where a subscription company manages about 15 million wireless devices. The system would have to update the databases in all of these 15 million wireless devices as soon as possible. In order to accomplish this, the prior art system would run down the list of wireless devices that required the updated information, the prior art system would then attempt to transmit that information to the communications network without regard for the amount of traffic that procedure would generate.
In essence, the prior art system would attempt to sequentially deliver 15 million updates. This would put tremendous strain on the communications network and consume enormous amounts of network resources. Also, because prior art systems were sequential, those systems would attempt to deliver messages without regard for the successful delivery of the updated information. In some cases, prior art systems had successful delivery rates below 30%. This meant that the updates would have to be attempted over and over again until the system accomplished a successful delivery. This repetition also consumed an enormous amount of resources on the communications network.